Description

About the Book :

This volume contains contributions by a wide spectrum of scholars-scientists, philosophers, theorists of language, social scientists and other-and presents a panorama of thoughts and opinions on science, tradition and their inter-relationships. The aim is to develop a bridge between the world Out there (science) and the world in here (tradition), the former built up to perpetual hypotheses and the latter of perpetual facts . But then the hypotheses do change as to the facts: creative science and creative tradition are both live entities. Both have their respective cosmogonies: in science major events occur in real-time, in tradition they usually occur in the beginning or at the end. This closing millennium belongs to sciences to science, shaped in no mean measure by traditions. It is necessary to understand their interaction in order to comprehend volume is an attempt is an attempt in that direction.

The volume opens with a section on contemporary issues in modern science: issues of truth, reality and objectivity. Clearly these issues interface with questions tradition also raise and attempts to resolve. So the next section looks at the Indian tradition from a modernist perspective to assess these answers in the light of developments in scientific thought. The impact of all this knowledge in terms o social power, history and pedagogy, on society and its organization is assessed in the final section of the volume. It is earnestly hoped that his work will spur the debate further on these complex and fascinating philosophical problems.

About the Author

A.K. RAINA (41) is a professor of electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He works in mathematical theories of control and information processing. His other scholarly interests are in the history of philosophy of science and civilizations. He occasionally writes poetry. He is also a fellow of IETE and a member of IEEE and a national expert of AICTE.

B.N. PATNAIK (57) is a professor of linguistics at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur. He is a generative linguist and works in linguistic theory, philosophy of language and comparative linguistic traditions. He has published extensively on Oriya syntax. His other interests include Oriya literature and folklore.

He was a visiting fellow at Special Assistance Programme in Philosophy of Rajasthan University and at the Center for Advanced Study in Linguistics of Annamalai University. He was a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. He is a past vice-president of Dravidian Linguistics Association.

MONIMA CHADHA (30) is on the faculty of School of Philosophy, Linguistics and Bio-ethics, Monash University. She was earlier with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur where she taught philosophy. She works in philosophy of language, Indian philosophy and philosophy of science. She is the author by Monish Distance Education Centre.

CONTENTS

Foreword

v

Preface

vii

PART ONEMETHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE

1. Grammatology, Effect and Truth in ScienceKalyan S. Basu

3

2. Symbols of Truth: Objectivity and Reality in ScienceSundar Sarukkai

26

3. Happy Positivism and its Melancholic CriticsV. Sanil

39

4. Metaphysical Bases of Science A.K. Raina

54

5. Rationality and the limits of Reason Mohini Mullick

67

PART TWO REDISCOVERING INDIA

6. On Understanding Ancient Indian ScienceSubhash C. Kak

83

7. Yogic Origins of Scientific Proof Navaratna S. Rajaram

108

8. Devication of Grammatical Sentences: Some Observations on Ancient Indian and Modern Generative Linguistic Frameworks B.N. Patnaik

117

9. Traditions and Concept of Knowledge Nirmalangshu Mukherji

125

PART THREESCIENCE AND SOCIETY

10. History and Philosophy of Science, and Science Education Prajit K. Basu